INQUIRER Global Nation

AFTER being placed on hold for seven years, the proposed 295-hectare Mandaue North Reclamation Project (MNRP) may soon continue.

Mandaue City Administrator Briccio Joseph Boholst yesterday said that the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) and the city government have chosen to come to an agreement on how to go about the project instead of fighting in court over jurisdiction rights.

“We can always fight it out up the Supreme Court, but that would take a long time. That’s why we came up with a compromise,” said Boholst.

The compromise would be in the form of a memorandum of agreement (MOA), which is under review by the City Council.

“The MOA will only dwell on the powers of the PRA to regulate reclamation developments in the country and not touching on the ownership because the area is owned by the city,” said Boholst, a lawyer by profession “We will abide by their requirements and we (city and the developers) will pay necessary fees.”

He said that while the MOA is a form of compromise, the city government would still not back down from its stance that it owns foreshore lands based on the law that created the Charter of Mandaue City approved in 1969.

The charter contains a special provision not found in most cities that allows the city government to own foreshore land within its jurisdiction, Boholst said.

In most cases, foreshore land is public.

The proposed MNRP involved the reclamation of 295 hectares of foreshore and submerged areas within Cansaga Bay along the waters off barangays Umapad, Paknaan and Labogon.

Since the start of the project in 2001, around 80 hectares had been reclaimed before the project was stopped due to the disagreement between the city and the PRA.